31 March 2013

Paris en Grisaille

"Les Monuments de Paris" mural by Lynne Rutter, photo by David Papas

Recently I got the opportunity to return to a client's home to photograph the mural I painted for them. How exciting to see this room finished! The magnificent Saarinen table
is surrounded with chairs upholstered in the most fantastic blue
velvet, and crowned with a vintage Italian chandelier in crystal and
rose brass. The floors have a black cerused oak finish.
The interior design of this gorgeous room is the work of Gary Spain. The shot was styled by Damian Alvarado and photographed by David Papas. Of course I assisted in the shoot, mainly by looking through the camera now and then and saying "wow, you guys!"

The mural is painted en grisaille using dozens of shades of warm gray, and is patterned after Les Monuments de Paris by Josef Dufour. It is painstakingly hand-painted in the style of the early 19th century block-printed scenic wallpapers, or papiers peints panoramiques. Unlike the original paper this mural is painted on canvas, and is quite durable, a necessity in a home with young children. I also added a few Paris monuments not found in the original paper and freely (re)arranged the design to best suit the room.

More about the creation of this mural here.click on image to view larger

7 comments:

Hi, Lynn - I remember when you first posted about this project, and I'm so glad to see the finished result. I like how the trees in the corners anchor the landscape to the room, how the strong horizontal enlarges the space, and I see the graphic quality of the clouds as a very modern element. Beautiful!